Dr. Zak completed her Masters degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at Wrocław University of Science and Technology in Poland. She went on to receive her training in Molecular Biosciences at Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) where she received her PhD from Autonomous University of Madrid. During her PhD she worked on gene therapy to improve vascularization of the heart post-myocardial infraction and visited the group of Prof. Michele De Palma at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland for further training in using viral vectors in a therapeutic setting. Here in the Zangi lab, Dr. Zak works on expanding the use of modified RNA technology in gene therapy towards cell specificity and non-invasive delivery methods which can be used in many disease settings.
Dr. Zak’s study titled Cell-specific therapeutic mRNA for targeted anti-cancer therapies aims to:
- To develop technology to restore the function of tumor suppressor genes. Specifically, we seek to eradicate tumors in animal models and eventually transition to clinical applications for cancer treatment.
- We endeavor to design an innovative colon cancer-specific mRNA translation system (ccSMRTs) for the targeted systemic delivery of tumor suppressor genes.
ConduITS is supported by NCATS of the NIH’s CTSA Program. Any use of CTSA-supported resources requires citation of grant number UL1TR004419 awarded to ISMMS in the acknowledgment section of every publication resulting from this support. Adherence to the NIH Public Access Policy is also required.
